2018 Catalan GP motorcycle racing: Lorenzo, Quartararo and Bastianini win the races at Montmeló

With just over ninety thousand spectators in the stands, race Sunday at the Catalan GP began with a win for Enea Bastianini, who started from pole, in the Moto3 category. The Italian’s first victory of the season, joined on the podium by Marco Bezzecchi, who will remain leader of the World Championship with 103 points, and Gabriel Rodrigo, in an accident-ridden race in which neither Jorge Martín nor Arón Canet came out well, with the latter leaving the track on a stretcher.

Then, in Moto2, also the first victory of the season for Fabio Quartararo, which is also the first World Championship win for the promising French rider at just 19 years old. The Speed Up team rider, who also started from pole position, beat Miguel Oliveira and Alex Márquez, second and third respectively. Although the Portuguese rider did not manage to win, he must be unhappy, since he started from the sixth row on the grid and has moved to just one point behind the championship leader, the Italian Pecco Bagnaia, who could only finish eighth at Montmeló.

And so we arrived at the morning’s main event, a MotoGP race that was dominated and won by Jorge Lorenzo. Now that it is known the Balearic rider will leave Ducati at the end of the season, it seems he has finally found the right setup for his bike, so that, just as he dominated the Italian GP two weeks ago, he again achieved an unchallenged victory, this time starting from pole position. Only Marc Márquez, and only for part of the first lap of the Catalan circuit, was able to put up some fight against Jorge Lorenzo.

The Repsol rider Honda finished in second place and, with 20 more points, strengthens his championship lead, opening a slightly bigger gap over third place today at Montmeló and second in the overall standings, the Italian Valentino Rossi. Andrea Dovizioso, who at the start of the year was seen as Márquez’s main rival, scored his third zero in the last four races and seems to be losing strength within his own team to a Jorge Lorenzo who, though late, looks set to become the new showman of MotoGP from here on.